<p>Neither of my kids knows how to drive a stick, despite the fact that we had one car with manual transmission for the last 5-6 years they were living at home. My wife deliberately refused to teach them, so that car would remain reserved for parental use. (There was an old minivan the kids were allowed to use.) </p>
<p>There was even a year or so when all we had was a stick car. They were both in college or post-college then, but would come home from time to time and be annoyed. Then the stick car died, too, and we got a Prius with automatic transmission, and they were happy again.</p>
<p>After they had left home, but before the stick car died, I offered to teach both kids how to drive it, but they had to pick a time when we were both available and block out a couple of hours. Both expressed interest, but neither took me up on it.</p>
<p>My kids, by the way, are representative of a long-term threat to the automobile industry. They are both fully launched and gainfully employed, and neither owns a car or has any plans to buy one. They live in large cities with elaborate public transportation systems (and expensive parking), and Zipcar serves their infrequent automotive needs fine. Both my wife and I had owned old, used cars pretty much from the time we started college, and we bought our first new car when we were about our daughter’s age.</p>
<p>Kids can’t drive one, AFAIK, and momx can’t either. So we don’t own a manual. </p>
<p>I think manuals are fun to drive, but if you are ever creeping along in DFW, LA, DC, or NYC style traffic, automatics have a lot to recommend them.</p>
<p>Bill Cosby has a driving in san francisco (stick shift) routine from decades ago that is amusing on youtube.</p>
<p>And my funniest stick shift story is also from a many-years-ago newscast where a couple of bank robbers ran out and commandeered a car at gunpoint from someone driving by, but were apprehended because they pulled the driver out and then were unable to drive the manual transmission car. :)</p>
<p>I taught both my college BF and DH to drive a stick. I prefer it to an automatic, esp. in the snow. Would like S2 to learn manual, but we don’t have one at this time. My new English DIL has only driven a manual and is actually nervous about learning an automatic. I told her to stick her left foot under the driver’s seat and she’ll be fine. :)</p>
<p>JHS, S1 and new DIL are in the “we don’t need no stinkin’ car” camp. Once DIL gets her US driver’s license, they will do flex cars as needed, though may buy a used car at some point down the line. Neither sees the need to make a big car payment, esp. when their employer offers a free shuttle to work or they can ride four miles on a bike.</p>
<p>S2 says that he does not want to drive in Boston even if we were to give him access to a vehicle. Smart kid.</p>
<p>I insisted both my kids learn to drive a stick shift. The main reason was that I never wanted my kids to get into a situation where the only person who can drive the car has been drinking or is to tired to drive. </p>
<p>I used to be able to (barely) drive a manual transmission in grad school. BF had one & taught me to use it. Wasn’t all that comfortable or great with it. Another friend had me take turns driving her 5-speed manual car to all the SW national parks after I graduated. It was an interesting experience. Have not driven a manual car since & neither kid has had the opportunity. Found it very challenging to use a manual on hills, so it wouldn’t roll backwards into the car behind. H was and probably still is good at manual/stick cars.</p>
<p>Both our kids have automatic cars, which are very helpful in their cities, DC & LA. At some point, they may be interested in learning & driving a manual, but it’s hard to even get a rental in the US with manual. None of our extended family even owns a manual, so not sure where they’d get a vehicle to learn on that is manual.</p>
<p>We’ve had at least one manual car for as long as we’ve been married (at least until I trade in my car when our new car arrives). I didn’t teach S1 how to drive a manual because he’s not very good at following instructions, especially if they seem stupid to him. I wasn’t willing to let him screw up my car. OTOH, S2 is a perfectionist who follows instructions, so I did teach him how to drive the car. I think he felt good that there was something he could do that his older brother couldn’t.</p>
<p>I’d like to teach my kids to drive one, but not enough to get one. I drove a stick for years, and then had only automatics for the last few decades. We once loaned our minivan to the church, and the youth pastor left me his car in exchange–without telling me that it was a stick. It comes back to you, but it didn’t make me want to go back to a stick.</p>
<p>We haven’t had a new manual car for decades & the one we did have, we special ordered.
Now we are cheap, and the last car we bought was through a special credit union arrangement limited to stock on hand.
H wanted me to buy a Jeep, which I did- but none of the Jeeps had manual transmission!
That’s like expecting a VW bug to be manual!</p>
<p>I grew up with manual transmissions, including one on the tree in my dads 72 ranchero. DS would be up to learn, but I have no idea how to find a car to teach him. Maybe one of his friends will have one in college, but I pity the car owner that volunteers their transmission to learn them. Many makes and models are not producing manual transmissions any longer.</p>
<p>I am gonna miss click and clack when they retire this fall (or have they already? Say it ain’t so!!)</p>
<p>Hmmm… I used to own a stick but I am not sure if my kids know how to drive one. I am pretty sure older s knows how, but not entirely sure, and less sure about younger s. Will have to inquire…</p>
<p>Younger kid who was home when we reintroduced a manual has learned, but older S just hasnt had the time when he’s home to learn. i will say it’s not as easy to drive a Mini standard as it was to drive the '76 Datsun I learned on. The Mini is bit stiff, IMO, tho lots of fun to drive.</p>
<p>We had only standards until it became hard to get them - we’d moved on to car models that were more family type and standards just weren’t available. I like having one around if anyone wants to learn, just like I thought it was important both kids take first aid and the basics of swimming. </p>
<p>You could never be Jason Bourne or James Bond without that skill, and who would want to preclude those possibilities?</p>
<p>Manual shifts are going the way of roll-down windows and 8-track cassettes. When we were in the market for a new car this summer my wife insisted that it had to be manual so our kids would not be deprived of this valuable life skill. Very few manuals are produced anymore, however, and we ended up having to buy a used one. The gas mileage is almost the same as automatics these days.</p>
<p>No, my son wanted to learn but couldn’t drive until he was 18 and by then he had moved back to the states and finally got his license at 18 and drove campus cars around the town, automatics. Every time he visited me with my little Mazda, he would try to learn by going around the block. But it was left hand drive, crazy traffic and I never really wanted him to learn in that environment. When I moved back to the states, I toyed with getting a manual and then decided against it. I loved my manual, but as I age it may be better that I just use the darn automatic and get on with it.</p>
<p>My 2 S’s know the basics and could drive a manual if they had too but it would prob. be a bumpy ride.DH had a manual '92 Chevy 1500 that he made them go 'round and 'round the neighborbood with until they at least had a grasp of how to do it.</p>
<p>I never drove anything but a manual transmission until I was 28 years old. We bought the (automatic) mini van when S2 was 18 months old.</p>
<p>Kajon- This actually happened to my S about a month ago. My S and his friends all went out one night and rode with a friend who drives a stick-shift Jeep… </p>
<p>The friend drank at a party and the others did not feel he should drive home. No one but the owner of the car knew how to drive the stick-shift.</p>
<p>My S drove them home anyway. He had never driven a stick before and stalled it a couple of times but was able to figure it out. They stayed on less busy streets and were able to make it home safely. Not the best situation by any means and I really wish we owned a stick shift so we could have been prepared for just this scenario.</p>
<p>I drove a stick up until about 3 years ago. The last car was a 5-speed Maxima. Learned on my grandfather’s 60’s vintage Plymouth Valiant with three on the tree.</p>
<p>D was too young to drive when I got rid of my Maxima, S didn’t want to learn. I should have made him.</p>
<p>H’s truck has manual windows and transmission. I’m so advanced; I have automatic transmission and manual windows.</p>
<p>My parents had a '71 Ford LTD, 9 mpg on a good day. On day my dad had had it, got out of the '72 Vega in a town with many hills and one-way streets and told me I was learning right then. I always thought that was sort of a cruel way to do it.</p>
<p>S1 and S2 drive manual trucks. S2 pulls a lot with a big trailer and won’t have an automatic. They were both driving by the time they were 12. I agree a kid learns to handle a clutch when they live on a farm.</p>
<p>D is just starting driver’s ed. I want her to learn…just not on our good vehicles.</p>